Valdez

In a prosecution for violation of Vehicle Code section 20001, subdivision (a), commonly referred to as a hit and run but more accurately described as fleeing the scene of an injury accident, will the injuries suffered in the accident and not aggravated in any manner by defendant’s failure to thereafter stop and render assistance support a Penal Code section 12022.7, subdivision (a) great bodily injury enhancement? That Penal Code section requires infliction of great bodily injury in the “commission of a felony or attempted felony.” The existence of an injury suffered in a traffic accident is a condition precedent to the imposition of a duty imposed upon a driver by section 20001, subdivision (a) and section 20003, subdivision (a) to stop and render aid. Thus, section 20001 makes criminal the flight from the accident, not the accident. As the defendant in this case was not committing or attempting to commit a felony at the time of the accident, the injury suffered during the accident was not inflicted in the course of the commission of a felony or attempted felony within the meaning of Penal Code section 12022.7.

I

FACTS

The information charged defendant Victor Valdez…